A jury acquitted R ’n’ B star R. Kelly of child pornography charges on Friday, finding he did not make an explicit videotape showing him having sex with an underage girl who called him “godfather.”
The 41-year-old Kelly, whose given name is Robert, could have faced a sentence of up to 15 years in prison on 14 counts of child pornography.
The eight-man, four-woman jury deliberated about six hours over two days before delivering the not guilty verdict on all counts.
PHOTO: AP
The 26-minute videotape featured oral sex, masturbation and other explicit acts and was handed over to police by a Chicago newspaper reporter in 2002. It had circulated widely on the underground video market.
Authorities said the tape was shot at Kelly’s former Chicago home sometime between January 1998 and November 2000 when the girl was 13 or 14.
The tape was played in court for the jury, and the girl could be heard whispering “daddy” several times. Family members testified she considered Kelly her “godfather” who frequently gave her cash gifts. She sang in a group supported by the popular songwriter, singer and producer.
PHOTO: AP
The girl, now 23, did not testify at the three-week trial in Cook County Criminal Court, having previously denied she was the girl on the tape. Kelly, who has toured and made million-selling albums during the six years since his initial arrest, denied being the man on the tape.
His life has come to resemble a freak show, but Michael Jackson may relaunch his career as a Las Vegas act, thanks to the private equity group that recently bought the loan on his Neverland Ranch in California to help the pop star avert foreclosure. Colony Capital is discussing with the former King of Pop various repayment options for the US$23 million debt, including a possible long-term engagement as the resident performer of a Vegas casino or nightclub.
The talks with Jackson were first reported on Friday by the Wall Street Journal. One idea under discussion, the newspaper said, was for Colony to install Jackson as a regular performer at one of its hotel-casinos, playing 180 nights a year. Another would be to create a musical extravaganza in which the Gloved One would appear 20 or 30 times a year, possibly with his brothers.
Colony also is pressing Jackson to go on TV, perhaps on Oprah Winfrey’s show, to make a public statement putting the Neverland Ranch and the controversy connected with it behind him, and to perform in a TV special proving to the world that he can still sing and dance.
In Europe, flamboyant Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore married top model Elisabetta Gregoraci in lavish style here on Saturday serenaded by UK pop group Duran Duran.
F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone himself witnessed the union along with Benetton group chairman Luciano Benetton and right-wing politician Daniela Santanche. The more than 300 guests also included Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and Spain’s former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.
French Cardinal Paul Poupard celebrated what the Italian press has dubbed the “wedding of the year,” uniting the 58-year-old playboy and Gregoraci, 28, in the 12th-century Santo Spirito in Sassia near the Vatican.
“I’m as excited as if a Grand Prix race was starting,” Briatore was quoted as saying, with press reports noting that his bride had coaxed him towards faith, along with a health scare in 2006, when kidney cancer was averted through an early diagnosis.
The unabashed party animal and quintessential Italian playboy has chalked up an impressive array of romantic conquests including Naomi Campbell, Nicole Kidman, Heidi Klum and Vanessa Kelly.
New mom Jessica Alba will be practicing love of a different sort — tough love. “The baby isn’t getting away with nothing,” said Romany Malco, who joins Alba and Mike Meyers in The Love Guru, speaking at the movie’s premiere.
Another cast member, Meagan Good, said Alba will probably be “strict and, ‘This is the way things go.’ But I think that’s great for a kid.” And Alba’s stunt double, Taryn Dakha, threw in her two cents, saying: “She’ll be a tough mom but she’s a phenomenal mother.” They’re all basing their prognostications on what Alba says herself.
Alba and husband Cash Warren welcomed a baby girl, Honor Marie Warren, earlier this month.
“I don’t want to be my child’s best friend,” the 27-year-old actress recently told Fit Pregnancy magazine. “I want to be a mom. But I do want my child to come to me when they have problems and need to talk, so it’s going to be about treading that line.”
A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one — shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect aging brains. A new study found shingles vaccination cut older adults’ risk of developing dementia over the next seven years by 20 percent. The research, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age — and what we can do about it. “It’s a very robust finding,” said lead researcher Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University. And “women seem to benefit more,” important as they’re at higher risk of
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
Mother Nature gives and Mother Nature takes away. When it comes to scenic beauty, Hualien was dealt a winning hand. But one year ago today, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake wrecked the county’s number-one tourist attraction, Taroko Gorge in Taroko National Park. Then, in the second half of last year, two typhoons inflicted further damage and disruption. Not surprisingly, for Hualien’s tourist-focused businesses, the twelve months since the earthquake have been more than dismal. Among those who experienced a precipitous drop in customer count are Sofia Chiu (邱心怡) and Monica Lin (林宸伶), co-founders of Karenko Kitchen, which they describe as a space where they
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